Last week I posted an essay on Baptist church autonomy. As I did the research for that essay, I found some interesting material in Howard Forshee’s Broadman Church Manual. This manual is quite helpful, and I’ve given copies to several new pastors. In his book Forshee quotes from Lee McCoy’s book, Understanding Baptist Polity, sharing the principles of New Testament polity. The word “polity” pertains to governance. My comments are in parenthesis.
- God is the sovereign ruler of all mankind.
- Christ is the head and divine teacher of the church. (Eph 5:23)
- The Holy Spirit is our guide and source of power. (As a foreign missionary, I taught the baby churches to pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and study the Bible to find answers to their questions and concerns. In other words, I taught them to be guided by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Bible.)
- The Bible is the supreme authority of the church.
- Each individual is competent and free under God. (This pertains to the priesthood of the believer.)
- Each church is an autonomous spiritual democracy. (I have heard that a Baptist church is a “spiritual democracy” all my life. This means that Baptist churches generally practice congregational polity. Still, that phrase, “spiritual democracy,” always makes me wonder. Would we do better to say that a church is a “Christocracy,” meaning ruled by Christ? We may wish to discuss this matter.)
- A church is a regenerate body. (This means a church is comprised of born-again people.)
- Church members have equal rights and privileges. (Each member has one vote.)
- Church cooperation is a voluntary matter. (Churches voluntarily join a local Baptist association, a state convention, and the SBC. A church can be a member of one, but not another.)
- Religious liberty is an inalienable right. (I sadly predict that religious liberty will be threatened more and more in the coming years.)
(Original Source: Lee H. McCoy, Understanding Baptist Polity, Convention Press)
When William Thornton and I were young, these principles were taught to us in Training Union on Sunday evenings. Of course, Training Union is long gone. I wonder, though, how our members can learn these principles today.
Thank you Mark for presenting this article for our consideration and discussion. Like you, I grew up hearing these tenets proclaimed in church and in seminary. I embrace most of them. However, I think the one that has been overlooked the most is the biblical concept of a regenerate church membership. No doubt this one is more difficult to implement than casting a majority vote. We need more focus and better training on maintaining a regenerate church membership. A second concern I have is the idea that the church is a democracy. Because we embrace the priesthood of the believer,… Read more »
High praise for my Georgia friend and fellow pastor who knows the difference between “tenet” and “tenant.” I always operated on the basis of consensus, generally a goal to be achieved prior to any formal vote. A church near by went through a long process. Just prior to a vote, someone foisted on the congregation the requirement of at least an 80% favorable vote. The vote was a few points below the threshold which meant that the project was scrapped on the basis of a few people. The church was divided and suffered greatly as a result, a huge mess.… Read more »
Great post on polity. Technically a church only joins the local Baptist Association. A church is considered (usually for a year) and voted on by the current members of the Association. No church joins the SBC, they decide to participate and associate with them by giving to the SBC CP. No application or vote of approval. State conventions operate the same way (I know of one exception).
Consensus is a great concept. It doesn’t mean that a few people can hold the church hostage with a negative vote, but it does mean that a church can learn how to discern the movement of the Holy Spirit in the congregation and recognize there might be a problem with something that has been proposed. It might just be a problem with the way it has been presented or perceived, or it may be that God is moving among people and giving an answer. The open discussion of whatever it is–a building proposal, a new pastor or staff member, a… Read more »
The Bible certainly supports statements 1-4 and 7. Would you mind giving me Biblical support for statements 5,6,8,9 and 10? I’ve yet to have anyone convince me that church business meetings and committees or even democratic process is a Biblical rather than man-made system. I know it’s the SBC way, but I still think it’s a non-biblical way. (I know, I’ve just committed SBC heresy here. It’s not my intention to offend anyone.) More and more SB churches in our area are turning to a plurality of Elders to lead their churches rather than majority rule. And I believe that… Read more »
Number 9 is technically true but is often read wrongly by Americans. As worded it places the decision for or against cooperation in the hands of the membership. It leads to an attitude that says “we don’t have to cooperate if we don’t want to!” Definitely contrary to Christ. Putting the final decision in the hands of the congregation also contradicts the truth of no. 2 that Christ is head of the Church. Instead let’s begin with the truth that Christ wants us to cooperate with other churches and word this: Since cooperation is necessary to the fulfilling of the… Read more »
But would Christ want us to cooperate with false churches? If a church is not obedient to statements 1-4 do we still seek cooperation with them? And number 7. Are we to be unequivocally yoked with unbelievers? There has to be some limitation to cooperation. There has to be some standard. I would suggest number 4. But I don’t believe we can be co-operative with churches that don’t cooperate. Cooperation cannot be achieved outside the authority of scripture. We can’t just go along to get along.
By what standard, and under whose authority, would you make a determination that a church was not obedient to statements 1-4? That would require a measure of ecclesiastical authority, not autonomy. I don’t see very many places in scripture where polity of the local church is discussed at all. Acts chapter 15 shows that one church, Antioch, decided to get the advice and counsel of their mother church at Jerusalem on a matter of importance. Initially, the apostles and elders met with Paul and Barnabus as representatives of the body at Antioch, but the decision was made by the consent… Read more »
Well, first I’m convinced that all authority for the church belongs to scripture. Just because a church, or an association, or a convention votes on an issue doesn’t make it right. If a church votes to call a lesbian as pastor does that make them right? No. So the standard is the Word of God, not the whims of man. But that leads us to the problem of various interpretations. In Acts 15 the church in Antioch didn’t make a democratic decision. They sent the ones who came from Jerusalem back to Jerusalem for an answer. Regarding the question of… Read more »
Soon after the Council, Paul and Bananas practiced individual autonomy. Which one was right?
In what way did they practice individual autonomy? Unless you mean their later disagreement over Mark? We all have personal decisions to make. I’m not sure how their individual decision had anything to do with the church autonomy.
But I guess we can bring it to a vote. That should determine which of the two was right. Can you put that in the form of a motion? I move that Barnabas was right. Do we have a second?
(Sarcasm, I learned it from Paul. He was good at it.)
Likewise, I’m no sure that the Council had anything to do with church autonomy. We might infer that this church was autonomous as they seemed under no compulsion to abide by the direction of Paul and Barnabas. It seems that everyone involved desired a Spirit directed consensus. It seems that there was a high degree of mutual respect and mutual submission involved. I’m not sure that all churches followed the direction of the Council, but those that did probably attracted more Gentiles. “And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city… Read more »
Well, there a huge difference between Paul and Barnabas. One was an Apostle and one wasn’t. So I wouldn’t be too quick to judge Paul’s motives or methods.
Though I’m not certain that Paul was an apostle in the sense that he is one of the 12 names on the pillars or in the sense that his appostleship ranks above that of Barnabas, I am certain that he had a better grasp of what Jesus taught than I do.
Did Paul have any apostolic authority in the matter?
If folks are going to question the apostleship of Paul and his authority then we have much bigger issues than church polity to deal with on this board. God help us.
Could someone explain what McCoy means in the last sentence of Number 9: “A church can be a member of one, but not another.”
Thanks.
A church can be a cooperating member of the Southern Baptist Convention without being a member of an association or choosing to affiliate with a state convention.
A church can be an SBC church and not be a member of the local association.
Thanks, David and Strider. The way it is stated was confusing me. Probably just me.
This is a good list and if it were headed traditional baptist polity, I would likely agree. I have a hard time finding several of these mandated by scripture. First the Bible does not describe a spiritual democracy as the “right” form of church government. It seems that the Bible expressly creates several offices and roles but is silent of the matter of democracy, particularly as practiced in the typical Baptist church. Personally I like some elements of democracy in the church, not because I believe in the goodnesses of man but because I don’t.But…I can’t find a clear mandate.… Read more »
Amen.
I’m sorry to be slow to respond. I was tied up with church responsibilities yesterday. I’ll respond more fully tomorrow. I just used the title “New Testament Principles” that Howard Forshee used in his book, The Broadman Church Manual, where I found this list. I don’t have a copy of McCoy’s book, but I assume Forshee used the heading from McCoy’s book. I agree that items 8-10 reflect Baptist tradition rather than explicit biblical teaching. Sadly, I don’t have a copy of McCoy’s book. He may have included supporting Bible verses in the book, but they were not included in… Read more »
Wise man. In politics 65% to 35% is a landslide. In church, it’s a split.
That’s good. I’ll have to borrow that.
Thank you for the explanation.
I’ve only been pastoring SB churches for 4 years. I was in a Missionary Baptist Church prior to that. I’ve struggled with getting used to SB polity. I’m getting used to it. But I still scratch my head and ask, why?
I think tradition is the the right term for some of these. Scripture never changes. Tradition should. If tradition remains in place too long people confuse it with doctrine.
D E, thanks for your interaction. In regard to #5, this speaks of the priesthood of the believer. The principal verse that speaks of this is 1 Peter 2:9–“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation…(NKJV). Both Luther and Calvin considered the priesthood of the believer as a key doctrine of the Reformation. About number 6, the church being a “spiritual democracy,” this is a traditional Southern Baptist expression. The Southern Baptist Statement of Faith and Message says, “Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes.” (Article VI. The Church) As I stated… Read more »
Thank you. It’s a thought provoking article.
No place for pastoral leadership or authority?
The post was not about that topic, but I’m happy to respond. I believe Acts 6 provides our model for church decision making. The church in Jerusalem faced a problem–the dispute about the distribution of aid. The Apostles proposed a solution, and the congregation approved their proposal. In other words, the congregation followed the leadership of the Apostles. Today, the pastor/staff would propose a solution, and the congregation would vote to approve it. (I’m assuming appropriate prayer by staff and congregation.) Of course, I realize that some SBC churches have elders now, but I’ll discuss that in another post. Besides… Read more »